Photo: Bernd Wendt
Biliana Voutchkova is a thoroughly engaged artist, violinist, composer-performer and improvisor whose work combines regular performances of major solo violin/ensemble works and new works by contemporary composers often written for her, improvisation and performance work reaching into the realm of movement and dance. Her constant research as a creative artist spans the widest possible range of sound and movement and extends her sonic, physical and technical capacities evolving into the development of a highly individual artistic musical language.
Biliana is a risk taker approaching contemporary classical repertoire with the same inspiration and freedom characteristic of her forceful improvisations. She collaborates with an international pool of renowned artists - among those are Mazen Kerbaj, Audrey Chen, Ute Wassermann, Iva Bittová, Robin Hayward, Jacques Demierre, Matthias Bauer, Frances-Marie Uitti, Séverine Ballon, Helmut Lachenmann, Michael Thieke, Hans Peter Kuhn, George Lewis, Georg Nussbaumer, Clayton Thomas, Axel Dörner, Peter Ablinger and many others. Biliana has been heard at festivals and concert series worldwide, her appearances ranging from celebrated concert venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York, the Berliner Philharmonie and Radial System V in Berlin, and Suntory Hall in Tokyo, to various site specific performances - in galleries, experimental venues, outdoor locations and other unconventional site specific set ups (Gallery Sammlung Hoffmann, MAXXI Museum Rome, das Neues Museum, Kule/Labor Sonor, Ausland, Cafe Oto etc.). After her 14 years long residence in the USA, Biliana now lives in Berlin and collaborates with the Splitter Orchestra, Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, Ensemble Modern, Zeitkratzer, Work in Progress, Ensembles United Berlin, Mosaik, LUX:NM and others. Her recent/current projects include solo concerts at Transmediale/Vorspiel, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, GAS, Mózg, Moving Music and Radar Festivals, collaborative performances with Olaf Nicolai, She She Pop/Zeitkratzer and the Berliner Ensemble, the release of the solo album "Modus of Raw", a concerts tour in the USA with Voutchkova/Thieke duo supported by the Goethe Institut, and performances for the festivals Klangwerkstatt, Documenta14, Wien Modern, Experimental Intermedia and Gent festival. Biliana received the Composition Stipend from the Berliner Senate in 2017 and grands from INM Berlin and the Trust for Mutual Understanding in New York in 2016.
Born in the family of musicians, Biliana Voutchkova begins playing violin at the age of four, makes her orchestra debut at the age of nine, and records her first CD for the Japanese label Crown Record Ltd. at the age of sixteen. She studies classical violin, in her college years starts being involved with the contemporary and improvised music scene in New York. Among her teachers are Peter Arnaoudov, Abram Stern and Felix Galimir. Ms. Voutchkova holds degrees from the University of Southern California and New School for Social Research/Mannes College of Music in New York (MM in music). She has received top honors at the Kozian International Music Competition, CRS National Competition for Performing Artists, and Music and the Earth International Contemporary Music Competition. At the age of nineteen, she was invited to the United States, and was presented the special Jasha Heifetz Violin Scholarshipfor for her studies at the University of Southern California. After her move to New York in 1995 her continuous interest and exploration of the music of today remains being a major part of her work.